A Day in the Life Plus Extra
by alicekinsno1
Summary: Just one of the days that CC and Mao might have spent together long before the actual series. Something extra special awaits them! I OWN NOTHING!
1. Chapter 1

A Day in the Life Plus Extra

_A/N: I felt like writing a fic concerning some of the time CC might have spent with Mao when he was a little boy, before he went insane and all. This is part one of a two-part story._

_Please be advised, Halloween's recently passed, so I've been eating more sugar than usual...._

******

"CC! CC! Wake up, sleepyhead!" came a small voice. CC opened her eyes, feeling little hands shaking her shoulders.

"M-Mao...," she murmured groggily, "C-can't you give me five more minutes?"

"Aww, CC, I woke up so, long ago!" replied the little boy, as he pressed himself against her and dug his fingers into her clothes. "I had breakfast.... It's time to get up!"

This time, CC stood up straight. The bright summer sun shone through the broken roof of the little shack where she and Mao slept together. "CC, why do I always have to get up first?" Mao groaned, and he folded his arms in a pout. "Why can't you ever get up before me?"

"My teenage circadian rhythms, probably," CC said to herself. Her permanently older-teenage body never seemed to grow out of those old biological patterns. But what she said to Mao was: "Well I'll just have to try harder in the future, okay?"

"Aww, okay...," said Mao. He brightened up instantly, "So, just eat your breakfast, and then we can play!"

CC ate what remained of the bread she had been saving since yesterday, and washed it down with a handful of berries from some nearby bushes. She looked to see Mao wiping sweat off of his face. "It's so hot here," he whined.

"Oh, when you're wearing that big, thick sweater...," said CC affectionately.

"I'll just take it off," said Mao; and before CC could stop him, he pulled it over his head. He wasn't wearing any shirt underneath. "You need to take off your shirt too, don't you?" he said to CC, cocking his head to one side.

"Oh, no; I'm very comfortable," CC said, though even she felt her hairline and armpits tingle with sweat.

"I know!" said Mao, "Let's go swimming!" He ran out of the brush toward the lake right beside their shack. In a second he had thrown off his pants and shoes and was in the water up to his waste. The cold water sent a shock through him, and he began shivering. "C-come on in, CC! It's so nice!"

"No, I like it out here," said CC, sitting on a rock where she could watch him.

"Aww, come on!" Mao pleaded, "Just a little while?!"

"No, I... really couldn't...."

"Why not?!"

"Well...."

"Pleeeease?!"

Mao was so persistent that at last, CC gave in. She tugged her clothes off piece by piece, and waded slowly into the lake up to her knees. "Haha! You're naked!" Mao laughed, running up to her and splashing her.

"M-Mao, s-stop!" CC squealed, her face turning red. She was used to being ogled and sized up everywhere she went, but... hearing such statements from a little boy was somehow too much for her. It was strange.

"Come on, all the way in!" said Mao.

"I'm coming...," CC sighed, at last submerging herself in the lake where the water reached Mao's neck. CC bent her knees and knelt down. Now she and he were at eye level. Mao splashed her in the face. CC giggled and splashed him back. The two of them continued to play like this for a few more minutes, before Mao flung himself on CC, nearly knocking her underwater.

"CC!" he said, "Can I ride on you?"

"Okay," said CC, putting her arms around him and crawling on her knees slowly into deeper water, until her feet barely touched the ground. Mao kept his arms around her neck, occasionally removing one to shoo away a fish or point at something. CC held his soft, slippery body against hers and floated slightly, relaxing. She was surprised to find herself at a sort of peace, as though nothing else mattered. At last Mao said:

"CC, let's go back to shore." CC engaged her senses once again.

"Okay, Mao," she sighed softly, swimming slowly back toward dry land, where they had put their clothes. When CC at last reached an area of the lake where Mao could stand, she let him down, and the two of them walked back toward the beach together.

"Someday you have to teach me how to swim," Mao pointed out.

"Okay," said CC, "You wanna do that now?"

"Nah," said Mao, "Maybe tomorrow."

"Okay," said CC, with a small laugh. She watched the little boy run back onto the beach with a small smile.

"Come on, CC!" Mao called, spinning around quickly to face her.

"I'm coming," said CC, running after him. They both stopped when they came to their clothes.

"I'm all wet," Mao complained, "How do we dry ourselves off?"

"We don't," said CC. There were no towels anywhere in sight, and they couldn't afford to get their only outfits wet and, inevitably, dirty. "Maybe if we just lie in the sun for awhile...?"

"You mean, naked?" said Mao, his eyes wide.

"Well... yeah...," CC managed, feeling like a martyr resigning herself to something unpleasant.

"Okay... where?" asked Mao.

"I...," said CC, scanning the area for a place to lie down. As an albino, Mao had very sensitive skin so he couldn't lie directly in the sun; but there was a small group of rocks under some shade trees that looked big enough to fit both of them. She knew he would go wherever she would. "Let's go over here," she said, running to the rocks as Mao followed eagerly. She lay down on her stomach, and Mao lay down next to her back, with his arms around her neck.

"CC, you're so nice," he crooned into her ear.

"So are you," she replied, not knowing what else to say. It really was so peaceful, lying on the flat rock on this summer's day, with her little disciple right next to her. No sounds except the animals in the woods and the breeze rustling through the trees, no obligations, no one to watch out for but the two of them.... Soon CC heard Mao's breathing become deeper and slower, soothing her even more than she already was. Before she knew it, she, too, was drifting off into a doze.

She woke up sometime later to find that Mao was no longer around her neck. CC sat up quickly, scanning her surroundings just as Mao ran back up to her, holding fistfuls of flowers and wearing only his pants. "CC!" he cried, "You're so beautiful! You're so beautiful, CC!" He flung flowers at CC as he ran around her. When he was satisfied, he jumped on her and proceeded to stick some more flowers deliberately in her hair. "Now you're even more beautiful! You're the most beautiful ever!" He jumped back to observe her, beaming.

"Aww, thank you, Mao!" said CC, smiling at him before standing up. "I'm going to go put my clothes on now," she said, patting him on the head as she passed.

As CC put her clothes on, she pulled the scratchy flowers out of her hair and shook her head. She didn't like them; they made her hair into unnatural clumps. If Mao complained she could always explain that.

But Mao didn't complain; he seemed to have forgotten all about the whole thing by the time she saw him again, and the two of them resumed playing.

"I'm hungry," said Mao at last.

"Okay," said CC, "You wanna catch some fish?"

"Oh, fine," said Mao, "I'm so hungry, I'll eat anything!"

So CC used a hook she and Mao had made to catch a few fish, while Mao ran around looking for twigs and leaves they could use to light a fire. As the two of them cooked the fish, Mao said: "I'm tired of fish all the time. I want something else to eat."

"Well, the next time we eat I could maybe kill a rabbit, or something...?" CC offered.

"Oh, no! It's fine, don't kill anything!" Mao gasped. "I just... Can't I have any of the stuff we got in the city anymore?"

"Well... there's none of that around here," said CC, her face reflecting the disappointment she hoped to convey, "And it's too difficult for me to go to civilization and bring any back; it wouldn't keep. So... I don't know what to tell you...."

"Aww...," Mao sighed, hanging his head.

"Well...," CC said, in a desperate attempt to cheer Mao up, "If... if I ever get a chance to bring you any of that kind of food, I will. Okay?"

"Oh, okay!" said Mao, looking back up at CC and smiling.

As the two of them ate, CC noticed that Mao seemed to grow increasingly uneasy. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I hear... voices...," Mao replied.


	2. Chapter 2

_Alright, y'all! Part Two's here! This one will have some more from Mao's point of view than Part One did. Enjoy!!_

_Oh, incase it's not clear, I OWN NOTHING!!_

******

CC's eyes narrowed with concern. Voices? If Mao was hearing voices... that meant there were other people around. But who would be coming out to such a remote area, which she had picked specifically because there were no people? Perhaps Mao knew.... "Mao?" she said, "What are they saying?"

"I don't know," said Mao, "I can't make anything out."

"Is that so?" said CC. So they probably weren't speaking Chinese, then, if Mao couldn't understand them. CC felt anger bubbling inside her. How dared they? She was so sure she had picked this place out specially for its remoteness and this stupid couple had intruded...! But then her anger subsided as she realized, that where there were other people, there was food. "Hey, Mao," said CC, "I'll bet these people have food. I can get it, but you'll have to help me."

"Oh... okay," said Mao, eagerness rising through him.

"So... where are they now?" asked CC.

"I... I don't know," said Mao, trying to concentrate.

"It's alright, it's alright," said CC, noticing the pained look on the boy's face, "I have an idea where they could be. The road we took to get here is that way," she said, pointing, "And so if we go in that direction, we may be able to find them."

"Okay," said Mao.

"So... just go put your shoes on, and we'll be ready to go!"

Once Mao had grabbed his shoes, the two of them began walking, and CC made Mao continue to follow their targets' thoughts. There was no better way of making sure they were heading in the right direction.

The two of them ended up retracing their steps several times, but before too long, they had arrived at a point in the woods from which a small, dark smudge was visible in the distance. "CC, the voices...!" Mao complained.

"Don't worry," said CC, ruffling his hair, "We're very close now. It's just that space, see?" She pointed.

"I guess," said Mao, squinting. He saw a dark shape in the woods, and started to move toward it.

"Stop!" CC hissed. "The people are there. If we want their food, you can't just go charging in; we need a plan."

The two of them slowly crept closer to the small campsite, where a man and a woman sat a short distance from a small brown tent. A backpack was suspended in a tree a ways away; CC deduced that this must contain the food. "Here's what we're going to do," said CC to Mao, "All you have to do, is go up to those people, and distract them. Speak to them; do a trick; I don't care what you do. But I need you to keep them busy while I take their food."

"Okay," said Mao.

CC and Mao parted ways then, and CC crept around out into the clearing, where she could see the backpack tied up in a tree. She approached it, and then stopped to listen. She could hear voices a ways away, but they were so faint they probably weren't too close. Both the man and the woman appeared to be speaking Japanese.

"So, we spend our last few days out here?"

"Yes. It's so beautiful out here. Perfect for a last trip before our wedding."

As CC climbed up the tree and began fiddling with the knot, she made a mental note of this fact in case Mao asked about it later. Presently, the voices seemed to be addressing a third person, cluing CC in on the fact that Mao had approached them.

CC unravelled the knot, moving quickly. As soon as she had loosened it enough, she hoisted the backpack onto her shoulder, and climbed down the tree, where she proceeded to turn it inside-out. She kept all the food, in addition to a first-aid kit, some scraps of paper, and small containers of biodegradable soap, shampoo, and toothpaste, only half-full. She took special care to replace all methods of communication, so the couple would get out of her and Mao's territory quickly once they realized where most of their food had gone.

Mao, meanwhile, followed the now distinctly human voices into a small section of the woods where a man and a woman were sitting together. The more they talked, the more Mao realized that they were not speaking Chinese. They were speaking some language he had never heard before, and he felt sick to his stomach. How was he going to speak to them? Their shamelessly unintelligible thoughts surging in his mind, he willed himself to take a step forward to face them.

Both the man and the woman stared at him for a moment, and then stood up, noticing his pained expression. "Hello, little boy," said the woman, in broken Chinese that Mao could just understand.

"Where did you come from?" asked the man.

Mao felt his brain get cloudier and cloudier as the disgusting white noise hammered in it, but he willed himself to look up at them and smile, as he scratched his head. The two adults smiled hugely at each other and him, and the woman whispered something to the man, which Mao was pretty sure was about him. Whatever it was, it sounded exactly the same as their thoughts,. Mao succeeded in isolating the word "kawaii," whatever that meant.

"Do you have family?" the woman asked in Chinese. "Or friends?"

"I... yes," said Mao triumphantly, "I have CC. She takes very good care of me!" The small superiority he felt in fooling the two adults took some of the edge off the pain from the voices in his head. But then another flood of thoughts from them brought it back, this time even more severe. Mao's face contorted.

"Are you okay?" asked the woman, reaching out to lift up his chin. Her thoughts were so close, so annoying and why couldn't he understand them? It wasn't fair! Unable to stand it any longer, Mao smacked her hand away.

"Stop it!" he screamed. "Don't touch me!" In a fury, he began pounding the woman anywhere he could reach. "Stop it! Stop it! Shut up, shut up, shut up!" He shook her so hard he almost knocked her over, before the man pulled him off, shouting. Their thoughts completely overwhelmed Mao, who ran away as quickly as he could, screaming and crying.

CC returned to the small shack where she and Mao slept after much difficulties; the items were difficult to carry in her hands (some of them, including a plastic bag half-full of rice balls, were pretty bulky), and she had to stop in order to rearrange them several times. When she finally made it back, she noticed that Mao was not there. Cursing under her breath, she dragged her prizes back to the wood, threw them in a tree, and ran back into the woods to search for him.

Mao ran as fast as he could go, straight ahead, not caring where he was going. He tripped and fell several times; plants whacked his face, arms, and legs; but all he could think of was getting as far from the hated voices as possible.

It was a long time before the woods fell silent around him. Now there were no noises, except the wind in the trees and the scamper of animals. But Mao was exhausted and out of breath. He fell to his knees and scanned the forest around him, but there was no sign of CC. Panicked, he screamed frantically: "CC! Where are you?!"

No response.

"CC?!"

Again, no response. Mao burst into tears, feeling the weight of his loneliness. The woods were bigger than him; he was lost, and CC was nowhere to be seen. He was going to die there, and the animals would eat him. "CC, CC...," he sobbed over and over again, as he lay curled up on the ground, shivering despite the summer heat.

CC, meanwhile, continued to run through the forest, searching for Mao. As her search dragged on, she found herself becoming more and more frantic. Mao was just a little boy, after all, and any number of things could happen to him in the woods. He didn't know the way back to their home base because he had never come out here alone before.

It was sunset before she found him huddled amongst some shrubs in the woods. "Oh, Mao!" she cried, running over to him. Mao opened his eyes and, upon seeing her, gave a squeal of delight and flung himself around her neck.

"Oh, CC! You're here! I'm so glad! I thought I would have to die here!"

"Oh, Mao, it's okay."

"CC! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I couldn't...."

"It's alright," said CC, scooping him up, "I understand. Come on, we'll go back and eat."

"Great, I'm starving!" said Mao.

"Oh, really?" said CC, "You'll love some of the stuff we'll have."

She carried him back to the outskirts of the woods, from which they could see their little shack by the lake. CC stopped on the way back to grab the bag of rice balls, which she cracked open as soon as the two of them had found a nice, exposed rock to sit on. "Try one of these," she told Mao, pulling one out and handing it to him. Mao, who was suddenly beside himself with hunger, sunk his teeth right in. His face lit up at once.

"Oh, CC! This is so yummy! Oh, I just wanna keep eating it and eating it and eating it!" He took several more exaggerated bites.

"There's plenty more where that came from," CC promised, "These are rice balls. They're from Japan."

"Japan?" Mao looked at CC quizzically, "What's Japan?"

"Japan is this great island in the big ocean that's next to China," CC explained, "It's got a lot of people, and they don't speak the same language as they do in China. That's why you couldn't understand those people earlier. They were from Japan."

"Oh," said Mao. "Do you know what they were doing here?"

"I don't know what they were doing here," said CC, "However I believe they were about to be married."

"What does that mean?" Mao asked with a small smile.

CC struggled with how to explain such a complex subject to such a little boy. "Ah... well, when two people love each other very, very much," said CC, "They get married. They agree publicly to spend the rest of their life together, have kids, and everything like that. They always celebrate marrying each other by having a huge party."

"Oh," said Mao. Suddenly his face lit up again. "CC, can I marry you?! I love you very, very much!"

CC tensed up. "Silly Mao," she said, "Only grown-ups get married. Not kids."

"Oh," said Mao, a look of disappointment on his face. But it left in an instant. "Then I'll grow up first," said Mao, "And then I'll marry you! And we'll have kids and we'll live happily ever after! How long will I have to wait?!"

"Oh, a long time," said CC, shaking her head, "I should think at least... ten, eleven years."

"Eleven years?!" Mao whined, "But that's so long!"

"Er... don't worry; it'll go by fast!" said CC with a huge smile, in an attempt to end the conversation.

"Okay," said Mao with a sigh, as the two of them stared at the moonlit water of their lake. "So... can I have another rice ball?"

_The end!_


End file.
